Holinka Leaving Blizzard to Work With Ghostcrawler's Studio

[chaud]

Holinka Leaving Blizzard to Work With Ghostcrawler's Studio
Holinka was the Lead Combat Designer for World of Warcraft, but is heading out to take some time off before he joins Ghostcrawler's new studio.

After nearly 11 years, Friday will be my last day on World of Warcraft and at Blizzard. I'm excited to spend time off with my family this summer, after which, I'll begin a new adventure with my old friend and mentor, Greg Street.

I am incredibly grateful to everyone on Team 2 for the opportunities I have been given and the support I have received. In particular, Ion Hazzikostas and Morgan Day have been tremendous to me these last few years. I appreciate their wisdom, integrity and friendship.

I will miss the combat team tremendously and my biggest regret is not being there to see them grow, develop and thrive as designers. The team's new leadership is very strong and will serve them well. I leave confident that they are in good hands.

Thank you to everyone who has ever played World of Warcraft. Your patronage has provided for my family over the last decade and I do not take that for granted. I appreciate you and your love for the game.

Alas, my watch has ended.

Ghostcrawler's Studio
Ghostcrawler left Riot last month to move closer to family and start his own remote studio, which will be working on a MMO-like game.

I am starting a new journey in more ways than one.

As I have shared with you all before, last year was a pretty brutal one for me personally. After 15 years in California, I am moving back to Texas to be closer to my surviving family. This may sound like I am retiring from the game industry, but far from it!

These past few years made me think a lot about my future and what I want to accomplish. They’ve made me think of the kinds of games I wanted to make as the defining milestones of my career: I want to make games I am truly passionate about and that players will love. They’ve also made me think of the effectiveness of remote work and how it can help me stay closer to my family.

That is why I'm excited to announce that I am starting my own remote studio! Our goal is to move fast and go big. Fortunately, I have found a great strategic partner aligned with this vision, and we are moving forward!

And yes it will be an MMO or something very MMO-like!

We’re not ready to share the new studio’s name or game details. Yet. Rather, the purpose of this message is that we're still looking for a few elite folks to round out our adventuring party. We will hire less experienced devs later (and yes some with no experience) but for now we are looking for leaders with serious industry experience. Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn if this is you.

If you know me, I value trust, empathy, and open communication, and that applies to both the dev team itself and to players.

Most importantly, players will be the judge of whether we win or lose. Things will be quiet for a bit while the adventuring party gears up, but we do plan to share what we’re working on early and often. We want to get you excited, hear your feedback, and give you the chance to catch our mistakes. This is the only way I personally feel I can make great games.

[Goat7]

Hopefully they make something great!

[Segus1992]

Do people still blame Holinka for PvP?

Sad to see him go, hope this means we'll get some cool stuff coming out of that new studio.

[Railander]

this truly is the end of blizzard as we know it. can't imagine how this company is going to look like in 3 years.

[bloodwulf]

Good luck to him. I'm sure there are going to be a ton of trash takes in this thread but sometimes you just need to do something new.

[Segus1992]

this truly is the end of blizzard as we know it. can't imagine how this company is going to look like in 3 years.

Because one of 4700 employees quit? Blizzard was doomed a very long time ago if that was the case.

[bloodwulf]

Because one of 4700 employees quit? Blizzard was doomed a very long time ago if that was the case.

People like this think that a developer is only good if it is stagnated and has no attrition at all. They don't understand that for some of these developers, they have been working on the game for their entire professional life and just want to do something new.

[doodle90]

this truly is the end of blizzard as we know it. can't imagine how this company is going to look like in 3 years.

Dragonflight has been pretty good and it was after a bunch of the other ones quit, so i'd say they'll do fine. Believe it or not there are plenty of people who are good at doing stuff. Maybe since he left we can get more combat than build resource spend resource

[Segus1992]

People like this think that a developer is only good if it is stagnated and has no attrition at all. They don't understand that for some of these developers, they have been working on the game for their entire professional life and just want to do something new.

Not going to say it ISN'T indicative of something going down at Blizzard (which isn't unlikely even considering the merger), but shit man he quit after working at the company for 11 years, I haven't held any job for even half that long.

[Relapses]

this truly is the end of blizzard as we know it. can't imagine how this company is going to look like in 3 years.

Imagine somebody thinking that Holinka leaving Blizzard is "truly the end."

Holy fuck.

[Revamp Man]

Awesome...oh I mean uh...nooo poor WoW however will we recover from losing the super awesome dev ahhhh

[Relapses]

People like this think that a developer is only good if it is stagnated and has no attrition at all. They don't understand that for some of these developers, they have been working on the game for their entire professional life and just want to do something new.

Yeah but if you consider that you can't blame the collapse of Blizzard on their refusal to buff Frost Mages for the third patch in a row.

[bloodwulf]

Not going to say it ISN'T indicative of something going down at Blizzard (which isn't unlikely even considering the merger), but shit man he quit after working at the company for 11 years, I haven't held any job for even half that long.

I just think that a lot of Senior Devs are moving companies to A) Work on something new and B) get more pay. In any IT adjacent field, the easiest way to get more money is title changes and the easiest way to get a title change is to join a new company (source, IT Professional). Also with the drama of the last few years at Blizzard, some of these guys are leaving to likely get a fresh start without the stigma attached.

[Revamp Man]

Now if celebration left the company I think I'd be content

[bloodwulf]

Yeah but if you consider that you can't blame the collapse of Blizzard on their refusal to buff Frost Mages for the third patch in a row.

Honestly, its been too recent to buff frost mages, i say nerf them again. All frost damage reduced by 2%. This is a buff.

/sarcasm

[McNeil]

I forgot this guy still worked on WoW. Best of luck with GC's new studio, I'm sure it will be a lot more fun than working for Blizzard these days.

[Flaks]

Man all these Blizzard devs leaving just keeps ensuring that their games will never be what they once were.

Hopefully it'll mean they'll be something different and better. Time will tell.

Also, all these Devs starting their own things hasn't really spelled out to anything worthwhile and I don't think it will.

[ParanoiD84]

Not many original Blizzard devs left these days but i believe he joined in 2012, hope he has alot of fun working with ghostcrawler though.

[Gorsameth]

And entirely predictable the re-writing of history has already begone.

While they are working on WoW everything is their fault and they are the devil personified.
And the moment they quit its "Blizzard is no longer what it once was, how will the game cope without this great person".

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Uh so are we in the “ Holinka ruined class design and PvP and should be fired” stage still or do we swap over to “ Holinka was one of the best devs and made the game great and now it Will die” stage?